Congress Moves to Impose Sanctions on Iran

Admin Sat 27 Jun 2015, 10:13 pm

Congress Moves to Impose Sanctions on Iran
Kirk, Menendez buck Obama admin on sanctions, seek to strangle Tehran's terrorism
BY: Adam Kredo June 25, 2015 5:10 pm
Sens. Mark Kirk (R., Ill.) and Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) revived on Thursday long-stalled legislation to impose and extend sanctions on Iran for a period of at least 10 more years, according to sources familiar with the move.
The bipartisan bid to extend economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic comes ahead of a self-imposed June 30 deadline for Western powers to reach a nuclear agreement with Iran.
Iranian leaders in recent days have demanded greater concessions from the United States and are insisting that economic sanctions must be completely lifted on day one of any agreement—before international inspectors are able to verify that Iran is not building nuclear weapons.
The Obama administration has been fighting congressional attempts to extend and impose new sanctions on Tehran, going so far as to lobby sympathetic legislators to kill these efforts.
However, Menendez and Kirk have tried multiple times to impose greater sanctions against the White House’s demands.
The senators moved again on Thursday to push sanctions despite White House objection. They filed legislation that would extend the economic sanctions on Tehran for at least 10 more years.
The bill seeks to renew the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996, which is set to expire next year.
Such an extension would defund Iran’s continued efforts to bolster its nuclear program and also strike out at its global financial support for terror organizations.
This would ensure that harsh sanctions could “snap back” at a moment’s notice if Iran is caught cheating on any agreement that is reached in the coming days.
The legislation also would require the Obama administration to file reports with Congress detailing whether the billions of dollars in sanctions relief already provided to Iran has been spent to support terrorism or the country’s nuclear and missile programs, or if the money is contributing to human rights violations.
The bill also would mandate that the White House disclose if ongoing sanctions relief has enriched any senior Iranian officials.
“Congress passed the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996 to drain Iran’s financial support for Hezbollah, Hamas, and terrorist threats to the United States and Israel and block funds for building nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles,” Kirk said in a statement provided to the Washington Free Beacon.
“Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper recently told senators that ‘Iran remains the foremost state sponsor of terrorism,’ so if the White House is serious about maintaining terrorism sanctions against Iran no matter what, it must support our bipartisan effort to renew this expiring law,” Kirk said.
If Western powers strike a deal with Iran in the coming days, “it is critical that should Iran violate the terms of an agreement, severe penalties will follow and a forceful snapback of sanctions will occur,” Menendez said in a separate statement provided to the Free Beacon. “For me, the trend lines of the Iran talks are deeply worrying, our red lines have turned into green lights, leaving snapback as one of the few tools available to demand Iranian compliance with an agreement.”
“Absent renewal we would be unilaterally lifting sanctions on Iran and hence unilaterally disarming,” Menednez said. “It stands to reason that if negotiators are serious about snapback, then they should support the immediate extension of the Iran Sanctions Act to ensure there is no question for Iran about the consequences of non-compliance.”
While Congress has historically extended Iran sanctions in a bipartisan manner, the issue has become more controversial as the Obama administration moves to suppress such efforts in order to preserve its diplomacy.
Earlier this week, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei demanded in a speech that any final nuclear deal last a period of fewer than 10 years. This would enable the country to restart aspects of its nuclear program without restriction after this time.
Reports also have indicated that the United States has offered to assist Iran in the building and maintenance of new light water nuclear reactors.
This entry was posted in National Security and tagged Bob Menendez, Iran, Mark Kirk, Nuclear Weapons, Sanctions. Bookmark the permalink.

Obama Refuses to Follow Law Cutting Off Aid to PLO
June 26, 2015 by Daniel Greenfield
These days Obama following the law would be news. Obama not following the law is just business as usual. So this is another case of Obama doing what he can to help terrorists while ignoring the limits on his powers.
No wonder he likes the PLO. It too is run by an unelected dictator.
Here’s what the issue is…
Two lawmakers are warning the Palestinian Authority (PA) that its economic assistance from the United States could be suspended because of its decision to initiate charges against Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“By formally submitting allegations against Israeli forces to the ICC Chief Prosecutor, President [Mahmoud] Abbas has triggered a provision in U.S. law that suspends all economic assistance to the PA,” Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement.
Lowey said Congress crafted the law to prevent U.S. tax dollars from rewarding “purposely provocative, unilateral steps” that threaten peace negotiations.
“Not only do President Abbas’ actions indicate his abandonment of a two-state agreement, they reveal his willingness to try to discredit Israel in the international community at the expense of the economic and humanitarian wellbeing of the Palestinian people,” Lowey added
But Abbas need not worry. Barack has got his back.
State Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez told Al-Monitor that while the United States doesn’t believe the Palestinians were eligible to accede to the Rome Statute and join the court, it will “continue to provide critical assistance to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.”
“As you are aware, US law includes certain restrictions on assistance to the Palestinian Authority,” Vasquez said. “We evaluate all planned assistance to the PA to ensure we are in full compliance with relevant legislation. We do not consider the relevant restrictions on assistance to the Palestinians to have been triggered.”
Nor will they ever be triggered unless Abbas converts to Judaism, dances the Hora and begins fighting terrorism. Then suddenly there will be a reason to deny aid, just as Obama refused to stop aid to the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist government in Egypt, but slammed the brakes when its leader was replaced by the anti-terrorist leader Al-Sisi.
Still Obama will condemn it in the mildest terms possible.
The White House said on Thursday that the Palestinians’ efforts to prosecute Israel for war crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague are “counterproductive”, and stressed Washington’s strong opposition.
“The United States has made it clear that we oppose actions against Israel at the ICC as counterproductive,” National Security Council spokesman Alistair Baskey said.
It’s counterproductive… which is right between unhelpful and “Ah come on.”
Take it from the Counterproductive-in-Chief.